Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 61

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 61

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plan was "just," because it offered to agriculturists, manufacturer, mechanic or merchant opportunity for cultivating the mind; "expedient," because "civilization is advancing, and it can only advance in the line of the useful arts," and "a knowledge universally diffused of the laws of vegetation might have doubled our annual agricultural products," and "had a knowl- edge of principles been generally diffused," among our mechanics and manufacturers, "we should already have outstripped Europe in all those arts which increase the comforts or mul- tiply the refinements of human life"; and "necessary," because "men who do not design to educate their sons for the professions are capable of determining upon the kind of instruction which they need." Here, then, was the crux of Wayland's philosophy of higher education, anticipating the declaration of Justin Morrill that there was ample provision for education in liberal arts colleges for the sedentary professions, but that the nation needed a type of higher education that would prepare men for the occupations of life.

Wayland proposed that Brown, while maintaining a curriculum that should fit men for the professional study of theology, law, medicine, literature or education, should so broaden the opportunities for study and so open options for choice, that numbers would come, addi- tional to those who had chosen professions, and find at the university education in the sciences that would lead to successful careers in the workaday world of industry, commerce and agriculture. Had Brown had the resources and the willingness to carry Wayland's plan com- pletely into effect, a great University of Rhode Island must have developed, anticipating the type of federal-state university that was fostered by the Morrill act of 1862, and later legis- lation by Congress. The corporation voted, May 7, 1850, to inaugurate the "new system" so soon as $125,000 "can be added to its present funds." The money was raised, $65,000 by sub- scriptions of John Carter Brown, Alexander Duncan, Mrs. Hope Ives, Robert H. Ives, and Horatio N. Slater, conditional upon the raising of $60,000 additional by September 4; and the balance after an appeal stating that "the whole design must fail and the university very soon be closed forever." The new curriculum included Latin, Greek, modern languages, math- ematics, natural history, civil engineering, chemistry and physiology, English, moral and intel- lectual philosophy, history and political economy, educational science (under the name of "didactics"), application of chemistry to the arts, and theory and practice of agriculture. Under the new system Brown inaugurated the first college department of education for train- ing teachers. The enrollment of students justified the changes, rising from 174 to 225, 240, 283, 252, the last in 1854-1855. The enrollment included in four successive years 55, 51, 84, 75 students who were not candidates for degrees in regular courses. Comment upon the new system generally was congratulatory. The General Assembly invited President Wayland to explain the plan in an address to the joint assembly, and adopted resolutions "that the members of the assembly will exert themselves to the end that said plan may be carried into successful operation." There were difficulties, such as might be expected, in carrying the new system completely into operation, and some failures. Brown had gained in one of the crises of its history at least (I) an increased endowment; (2) an enlarged faculty; (3) an enriched curriculum; (4) a new clientage ; and (5) a widespread confidence in Rhode Island that the new system in its operation would tend to establish a positive correlation between state and university. Brown University was nearer in 1850 to being the "University of the State of Rhode Island" than ever before in its long history. President Wayland resigned in 1855; he died September 30, 1865.

AFTER WAYLAND-Rev. Barnas Sears succeeded Dr. Wayland, continuing twelve years to 1867. During this administration there was a perceptible reaction from the new system inaugurated by Wayland, and the departments of education, civil engineering* and applied

*Temporarily.

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chemistry disappeared. Requirements for admission and degrees, which had been lowered under the new system, were restored, and the college was less cordial in its welcome to students who entered for less than the four-year term. There was no overt declaration of abandonment of the new system or of return to the practices prevailing before 1850, and there was no complete restoration of the old regimen. There was. nevertheless, a gradual readjustment, or consolidation, in the course of which a selection took place of excellencies of the new system for retention, and a rejection of some factors that had not worked well in practice or which were too much in advance of the times for easy assimilation. For five years the Civil War overshadowed the college, as it did all else in America. The college endowment was increased, Rogers Hall, the old chemical laboratory, was added to the equipment, and sons of Brown, alumni and undergraduates, undertook patriotic service in the struggle, for the most part with the Union army or navy, though there were a few from the Southland, who followed their states loyally into the Confederacy. College exercises were interrupted, but the college was not closed as it had been in the Revolution. Of the 278 men who were members of the gradu- ating classes, 1861-1865, 132 enlisted ; altogether 268 Brown men enlisted, counting graduates and undergraduates, and the memory of twenty-one who died in the war is preserved by a tablet in Manning Hall.

From the State of Rhode Island Brown University received an assignment of Rhode Island's "rights" under the Morrill act of 1862. It is conceivable that a President with Way- land's strong penchant for the utilitarian in education might have seized upon this grant as the opportunity for transforming Brown University into a state university, or for establish- ing in the university a department of agriculture following the recommendation in his report in 1850.1 It was not to be, however ; Presidents Sears, Caswell and Robinson were not inter- ested in agriculture. Professor Chace, who served as executive administrator while Brown was finding a president to succeed Sears, organized a three-year course for those who had been granted state scholarships under agreement with the General Assembly. During the admin- istrations of Presidents Sears and Caswell the university's endowment was increased, reach- ing $602,000 in 1872, when President Caswell resigned. Interest in athletics had produced a baseball nine, and a crew; in 1870 the freshman six-oar boat defeated Amherst, Harvard and Yale at Lake Quinsigamond.

BROWN'S IRON MAN-An "iron man" came to Brown as President in 1872 in the person of Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, who almost immediately devoted himself to a program of build- ing, introducing new studies and increasing the university funds. Several offers of land as new sites for the university had been made, including one by Senator William Sprague, but none was accepted. New construction during the seventeen years of President Robinson included (I) an addition to Rhode Island hall for the department of physics; (2) a new library building, at the corner of Waterman and Prospect streets, across Waterman Street from the campus, land and buildings both gifts of John Carter Brown and his widow; (3) Slater Hall, a dormitory, gift of Horatio N. Slater; (4) Sayles Hall, gift of William F. Sayles, as a memorial to his son, William Clark Sayles; (6) rebuilding of University Hall, except the walls, from cellar to roof ; (7) Wilson Hall, for the physics laboratory, gift of George F. Wilson. Money for two other buildings, Lyman Gymnasium, gift of Daniel W. Lyman, and Ladd Observatory, gift of Governor Herbert W. Ladd, had been contributed ; the buildings were constructed after Dr. Robinson resigned. The endowment funds reached $1,000,000. The university library, which had grown to 38,000 volumes, received the Olney bequest of $10,000 for the purchase of botanical books, and the Harris collection of American poetry, 6000 volumes, collected by Albert C. Greene, C. Fiske Harris and Henry B. Anthony,

*For a history of this grant see the State College infra.

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the last of whom bequeathed it to Brown. The middle campus was graded, and the back campus, later known as Lincoln Field, was filled in and levelled for baseball. Metcalf Arbor- etum, for use as a botanical garden, was received by gift in 1884. A collection of portraits, already underway, was removed to Sayles Hall. In his first report to the corporation Presi- dent Robinson discussed the need for a "scientific school . . . for instruction in the appli- cations of science to the mechanic arts .. .. which . . . . shall not fail to provide for sub- schools of design, of drawing, of civil engineering, of architecture, of the fine arts, etc.," thus anticipating the work later undertaken in part by Rhode Island School of Design. His own interest in science led to a broadening of the curriculum, which, made possible by the larger means available and the tuitions increased in amount per student and by the number of stu- dents, would have gladdened the heart of President Wayland. New professorships were established in physiology, agricultural zoology, natural history including botany, geology, astronomy, and modern languages. Entrance requirements were increased, the course leading to the degree of bachelor of philosophy was lengthened to four years, and a limited elective system was gradually introduced, made possible by the new studies and a recognition of the broadening needs of well-educated citizens. President Robinson resigned in 1889, being then seventy-four years of age.

E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS, PRESIDENT-To the vacancy caused by the resignation of Presi- dent Robinson, the corporation called Elisha Benjamin Andrews, who a year before had left Brown to accept a professorship at Cornell. Seventeen years of age in 1861, he enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of second lieutenant by promotion, was wounded at Petersburg, and entered Brown, in 1865, already a veteran with an honorable war record. As professor of history at Brown, 1883-1888, his popularity was only less than that which he achieved as President. In eight years the enrollment of students, including undergraduate men, graduates and women in the new women's college, increased from 276 to over 900, a gain of 240 per cent. The faculty was enlarged from twenty-six to eighty-eight, including a gain of from sixteen professors to forty-seven professors, and of from six to thirty-one instructors. New departments were introduced, old departments were broadened by the introduction of new courses, and the requirements in course were modified to permit more extensive election of courses. Andrews not only built up the university, but by inspiring leadership unified it in spirit. Old Brown experienced a Renaissance and was fired with the enthusiasm of a mag- nificent master spirit which fused it with the new Brown. Marked as had been the splendid growth in physical equipment under President Robinson, including Wilson Hall and Lyman Gymnasium, both completed in 1891 while Andrews was President, Brown had outgrown all of it and was badly crowded by 1892. The erection of Maxcy Hall, 1895, affording dormitory and class-room accommodations, scarcely relieved the pressure. Brown needed more new buildings and more endowment, but neither was forthcoming. The construction of Pembroke Hall, 1897, for the Women's College, did not improve the situation on the campus. The nation was not prosperous at the period, and men with wealth no longer gave liberally to Brown University.

President Andrews had incurred the displeasure of some of the new captains of industry and commerce because of his views on economic questions, favoring both free trade and bimetallism. As a teacher of political economy his views on both questions were well known, but he avoided, while serving as President, public expressions of his opinions. He was absent from the United States and Brown, on leave of absence seeking recuperation and health in 1896, during the political campaign waged on the issue of free silver coinage, but private letters in which he answered questions favorably to bimetallism were quoted in the discussions incident to the campaign and were published without his wish or consent. No issue after the

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Civil War awakened more rancor and ill-feeling than that of free silver coinage, and the campaign of 1896 was one of the most bitter the country ever experienced. The corporation in June, 1897, appointed a committee to confer with President Andrews "in regard to the interests of the university." On learning from the committee that the corporation wished "not a renunciation of . . . . views as honestly entertained by him, but a forbearance, out of regard for the interests of the university, to promulgate them," President Andrews tendered his resignation because he could not comply with this request "without surrendering that reasonable liberty of utterance . . .. in the absence of which the most ample endowment for an educational institution would have been but little worth."

It was a Massachusetts member of the corporation, Joseph Walker, of Worcester, who had proposed curtailment of the President's liberty of speech; had E. Benjamin Andrews been born in Rhode Island he could not have answered better. In his years at Brown as student, instructor and President he had caught the Rhode Island spirit and had become most appreciative of Rhode Island's unique history. The university rose to his support. More than 600 alumni petitioned the corporation to "refute the charge that reasonable liberty of utterance was, or ever is to be denied to any teacher of Brown University." Women gradu- ates of the new college for women sent a petition on behalf of the President who had made the Women's College possible. Undergraduates were preparing to leave. Twenty-four pro- fessors joined the movement against the corporation, protesting action that "would stamp this institution, in the eyes of the country, as one in which freedom of thought and expression is not permitted when it runs counter to the views generally accepted in the community or held by those from whom the university hopes to obtain financial support." The issue of personal liberty transcended the economic issue. Friends of "free thought and free speech" from all parts of the United States took up the quarrel. Thus it must ever be "ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet." In the dilemma the great soul of Andrews rose to new mag- nificence and magnanimity. He knew, perhaps, better than anyone else in that summer of 1897, in which many an enthusiastic supporter of "Andrews and free speech" cast discretion to the winds, the incalculable injury to Brown University that would follow his withdrawal under the circumstances ; and he placed the welfare of the university first. He must main- tain his own integrity, and yet find a way for conciliation and to restoration of peace after a quarrel that threatened destruction, in the course of an unfortunate episode, of all that had been accomplished in years of constructive effort. In a statement to the committee of con- ference he reaffirmed his unqualified faith in international bimetallism, and his belief that, while other nations must cooperate to make the movement successful, the United States might initiate action. He denied the making of any public statement of his private views, and regretted that private correspondence with intimate friends had been published without his consent or wish.

The corporation requested President Andrews to withdraw his resignation, disaffirming any purpose "to prescribe the path in which you should tread, or to administer to you any official rebuke, or to restrain your freedom of opinion, or reasonable liberty of utterance," and explaining that the corporation had wished "simply to intimate that it would be the part of wisdom for you to take a less active part in exciting partisan discussions and apply your energies more exclusively to the affairs of the college." The corporation concluded by saying that it "cannot feel that the divergence of views between you and the members of the cor- poration upon the 'silver question' and its effect upon the university is an adequate cause of separation between us," and that it is "profoundly appreciative of the great services you have rendered the university and of your sacrifice and love for it." The resignation was with- drawn and Andrews returned to Brown. The news of President Andrews' return, received late in the evening preceding the reopening of college for the fall term, 1897-1898, was the

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occasion for the greatest "celebration" in the history of the college, the next greatest being another on the occasion of the return of President Andrews some years later for a short visit to the university. To signify their rejoicing at the return of "Benny," as he was called affectionately by faculty and students, both turned out in an imposing fireworks procession from College Hill through the centre of the city of Providence, and back to the campus for a round of speeches, and a final cheer for Brown and a "God bless Benny Andrews." The writer, a senior at the time, walked and danced in the procession side by side and sometimes arm linked with a professor who had seen and was to see further years of service in the uni- versity. Bad feeling engendered by the passions of the quarrel were forgotten, and Brown entered upon an era of good feeling, into the promotion of which Andrews threw all the ardor of his love for Brown University.

With the declaration of war against Spain in 1898 Andrews aroused the student body with the clarion call of a veteran soldier of the Republic, and the students turned out almost to a man to organize a cadet battalion and drill daily under the direction of a United States army officer. The war was short and the battalion never was called for actual service, but many Brown men, including some who were undergraduate students, enlisted in the Rhode Island regiment. Two, Louis Thomas and John Wells, both of the class of 1898, who went to the Philippines after the war as teachers, were slain by natives. President Andrews remained only for a year after his return; he resigned in July, 1898, to become Superintend- ent of Public Schools in the city of Chicago for two years, and later Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Nebraska. The corporation accepted the second resignation in resolutions record- ing "their high appreciation of the valuable services which he has rendered to the university during the nine years in which he has held the office of President. His administration has been both vigorous and conservative; his method, that of extending as widely as possible the influence and help of liberal education ; his relations to students, faculty and officers, such as to bind them to him in sincere respect and personal regard. His success as an educator is shown in the remarkable growth of the university during his term of office, and in the enthusiasm which he has inspired in those who have been under him. The record which he leaves of his labors here is one in which he may well take an honest pride, and one which marks an epoch in the history of Brown."

Both Robinson and Andrews had brought back to Brown some of the fire of Wayland, Robinson in the masterful building of the university estate, and Andrews in the splendid recruiting of a greater Brown, which for the time grew faster than any other American col- lege. Besides the larger regular student body of undergraduate men, and the inauguration of a college for women in the university, Andrews had not only attracted a large body of "spec- ial students," not matriculated as candidates for degrees, and following the plan outlined by Wayland for a group of students, each one studying "what he chose, all that he chose and nothing but what he chose," but had carried university culture outside the college walls through "extension" service that reached hundreds of people in Rhode Island and nearby places in other states. There had been also, during the administration of Presidents Robinson and Andrews, a notable development of athletics, and Brown maintained teams of national reputa- tion in two major sports-baseball and football. President Andrews himself was an enthus- iastic supporter of the athletic program, and a conspicuous figure at games and in "celebra- tions" of victories. For a year Professor Benjamin Franklin Clarke, who had been acting President while Andrews was on leave of absence, served as acting President until the elec- tion of Rev. William H. P. Faunce as President, June 3, 1899.

A LONG ADMINISTRATION-The long administration of President Faunce, thirty-one years from 1899 to 1930, may be divided into two periods of nearly even length, from 1899 to the sesquicentennial year of 1914, and from 1914 to 1930. In the first period of fifteen

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years there was a steady, but not a remarkable growth of the student body or of the faculty, although the latter was strengthened by a gain in the ratio of professors to instructors and encouraged by salary increases that tended to relieve the sacrifices constantly made in earlier years. Into the work of obtaining the physical plant and the financial resources necessary to maintain the university that had grown so rapidly in the preceding administration, President Faunce threw all his strength, receiving cordial support from corporation and alumni, reunited in the common cause. His charming personality, unctuous address and polished eloquence won him hosts of friends, who shared his enthusiasm in the great work of building. The first task, raising $1,000,000 to increase the endowment, was accomplished in 1900, and in 1902 another $1,000,000 was obtained. To large gifts offered by wealthy friends of the uni- versity contributions were added, large and small, by the alumni; the $2,000,000 raised in 1900 and 1902 attest the love of the graduates for their college. Other gifts, including a leg- acy of $500,000 and one of $85,000, and a third $1,000,000, raised in 1912, carried the endow- ment to over $4,500,000 in the sesquicentennial year. New buildings and other construction, augmenting the physical resources, during the same period, included: (1) Andrews Field, 1899, for a quarter of a century the university athletic field; (2) a brick house for the Presi- dent, 1901, at the corner of Hope and Manning streets ; (3) an administration building, 1902, at the southwest corner of Prospect and College streets, and with it, also the gift by bequest of Augustus Van Wickle, a memorial gateway at the main entrance to the campus, on Prospect Street opposite College Street ; (4) the Engineering building, 1903, on the back campus; (5) Caswell Hall, 1903, a dormitory, on the back campus facing Thayer Street; (6) Colgate Hoyt swimming pool, 1903, adjoining Lyman Gymnasium; (7) Rockefeller Hall, 1903, gift of John D. Rockefeller, at the north end of the middle campus; (8) John Carter Brown Library, 1904, housing the John Carter Brown collection of Americana, both gifts of the estate of John Nicholas Brown, and with them the John Nicholas Brown gateway, on George Street, oppo- site Brown Street ; (9) the Carrie Brown clock tower, 1904, gift of John Bajnotti, a memorial to Carrie Mathilde Brown Bajnotti; (10) the iron fence, 1903-1905, gift, section by section, of university classes, and including, besides the Van Wickle and Brown gates, other gates known as Robinson, Class of 1872, Class of 1887, Goddard, Schofield and Soldiers; (II) Sayles Gymnasium, 1906, for the Women's College; (12) recitation building, 1906, for the Women's College; (13) field house, 1907, Andrews Field; (14) Miller Hall, 1910, dormi- tory for Women's College ; (15) John Hay Library, 1910; (16) East House, 1912, dormitory for Women's College; (17) Arnold Biological Laboratory, 1914. University Hall, exterior, was restored in 1905, by removing the stucco, replacing doors and windows, and the belfry in colonial design. Of the new buildings, 1899-1914, the most striking are the John Carter Brown Library and the John Hay Library. The former houses a growing collection of some 30,000 volumes relating to the history of North, South and Central America. John Carter Brown began to accumulate the library in 1840, and the work was continued by his son, John Nicholas Brown. Composed of source material printed before 1801, the collection bears in Europe and America a deserved renown for completeness, as well as for its possession of some of the most coveted treasures of Americana.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 61

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716